What is Azacitidine (Vidaza) and how does it work? Azacitidine is a chemotherapy drug, a type of drug called “hypomethylating agent”. Hypomethylating agents are considered a non-intensive treatment. They are aimed at slowing the progression of the disease with as few side effects as possible, maintaining a good quality of life. They will not cure […]

Car-t cell therapy aims to boost the immune system to attack tumor cells Cell therapies, sometimes called “living therapies”, are an especially promising and rapidly growing area of cancer research. One approach that’s been pioneered by Memorial Sloan Kettering researchers, led by investigator Michel Sadelain, is called CAR-T cell immunotherapy. This type of targeted immunotherapy […]

When is a blood transfusion considered? How low should the cell count be? When the blood lacks enough healthy red blood cells or haemoglobin, anemia symptoms develop, typically fatigue, shortness of breath, weight loss, paler than normal skin, etc and a blood transfusion is considered. There is no set haemoglobin level at which a blood […]

More than 70 participants representing medical specialists and nurses caring for MDS patients, MDS patient advocates, medical researchers and data managers, healthcare authorities, regulators, HTA experts and industry representatives gathered for the first MDS-RIGHT multi-stakeholder meeting on the 3 May 2017 in Valencia, Spain – in conjunction with the biannual MDS 2017 International Symposium. This […]

A new project was trialled for more than two years by nurses from home-care units in Spain: ‘Azacitidine administration at home’. Now it has been rolled out to include most of the hospitals in Spain administering Azacitidine. It was initially undertaken by nurses, not necessarily haematology nurses, who would visit patients at home usually by taxi […]

The following videos come from the annual UK MDS Forum Education Day 2016, which took place in London on 11th November 2016. The day is targeted at all haematologists in the UK and Ireland who deal with MDS patients. Its aim is to provide information and updates on the most advanced scientific and clinical research […]

In this presentation from the 2016 “European Focus on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and Myelodysplastic Syndromes”, Dr. Fabio Efficace discusses the importance of quality of life as a treatment goal in myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) Dr. F. Efficace discusses importance of Quality of Life as Treatment Goal in MDS When latest genetic analysis and therapeutic strategies are incorporated into MDS […]

Researchers designed an antibody that recognises and destroys CD99-covered leukemia cells while sparing normal blood stem cells This is a microscopic image of a leukemia cancer stem cell (Credit: Montreh Tavakkoli) with normal DNA coloured in blue. CD99, those green-coloured spots, is a protein-sugar molecule, which occurs more frequently than normal on stem cells responsible […]

Research FOR Patients For an informed and empowered opinion and an improved consultation Have you made your clinical paper accessible yet? What is a clinical Registry? In order to develop new drugs to treat MDS, clinical trials are mandatory, typically testing the new drug against the treatment that is considered to be the standard at […]

Fresher is not better It’s been long thought that when blood transfusions are needed, it may be best to use the freshest blood, but McMaster University researchers have led a large international study proving that it is not so. The study of almost 31,500 patients at six hospitals in four countries showed that having a […]